Press Release
Contact:
Nils Kessler
ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY
PHONE: (616) 456-2406
TRAVELING MAIL THIEVES AND CHECK FORGERS SENTENCED TO PRISON
Monday, May 18, 2009 - Grand Rapids, Michigan – Timothy Andrew Lanning, 32, of Benton, Missouri, and Paula Marie Calderon, 38, of Whitewater, Missouri were both sentenced to 42 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis. U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff also ordered Lanning and Calderon to pay $15,286.92 in restitution to their victims. The sentence was imposed as the result of guilty pleas the defendants entered in December, 2008, to an indictment charging them with conspiracy to steal U.S. mail and pass forged checks. U.S. Attorney Davis was joined in the announcement by Joseph Pirone, Inspector in Charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
According to court records, Lanning and Calderon traveled from city to city stealing outgoing mail from residential mailboxes, looking for personal checks. The defendants would alter the checks and pass them at retail stores to purchase high-value merchandise. They would then take the merchandise to other branches of the same stores, where they would return it for refunds. Lanning and Calderon stole approximately 30 checks from 22 separate victims, leaving a trail of financial evidence. U.S. Postal Inspectors determined Lanning’s and Calderon’s identities through analysis of bank records and video evidence, but the defendants managed to evade capture for several months by repeatedly relocating.
In October, 2008, Lanning and Calderon passed a check they had stolen from the mailbox of a Kent County Sheriff's deputy, who immediately acted on the information. Kent County detectives determined that Lanning and Calderon had used the check to purchase, among other things, a hotel gift card. Sheriff's deputies determined that the card had been recently used at a hotel in Kentwood, Michigan, learned the defendants were still registered at the hotel, and apprehended them there with a van full of stolen merchandise.
In pronouncing sentence on the defendants, the Court noted the violation of trust perpetrated upon the victims, as well as both defendants' lengthy history of theft and fraud crimes. “People have a right to expect that when they put letters in their mailbox, they will be delivered,” said U.S. Attorney Davis, “Stealing the fruits of other people’s honest labor will not be tolerated.”
U.S. Attorney Davis praised the hard work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Kent County Sheriff's Department in bringing this case to a successful conclusion. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils R. Kessler.
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